20VC: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Scaling Teams; What Works and What Does Not, A CEO's Relationship with Stress and Managing It & How To Structure Internal Decision-Making Effectively
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2019
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steve Huffman is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Reddit, home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection. To date, Reddit has raised over $550m in funding from some of the world's leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Marc Andreesen, Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Sam Altman, Josh Kushner, Alfred Lin and Tencent, just to name a few. Steve started his career at Y Combinator as one of their first alumni back in 2005. At YC, Steve co-founded Reddit with Alexis Ohanian, which they sold in 2006 to Conde Naste Publications. In 2010, Steve co-founded Hipmunk, making business travel seamless and easy. Then in 2015, Steve re-joined Reddit as their CEO.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Steve made his way into the world of startups and came to be one of the very first ever entrants in the now hailed Y Combinator? How did that lead to the founding of Reddit? Why did Steve return to Reddit, the company he founded, in 2015?
2.) What were Steve's biggest lessons from his journey with Hipmunk when it came to product feedback and iteration? How does Steve assess people's reliance on data today to drive product decisions? Why does he believe 3 criteria must be considered? What are the other two? What time did Steve see the confidence of his own intuition really increase?
3.) How does Steve think about stress management today? What was he like when he was younger in his relationship to stress? What did he actively do to change his relationship to stress? How has Steve seen himself change and develop as a CEO? What have been the inflection points? What has he struggled and also made mistakes in the journey?
4.) What have been Steve's biggest lessons when it comes to hiring truly A* talent at scale? What are the commonalities in the very best hires Steve has made? In the cases of it not working, what does Steve advise founders on the right way to let someone go? How does one do it with efficiency and compassion?
5.) Why does Steve believe that in dense cities, self-driving cars will not be that useful? How does Steve envisage the future of consumer transportation? What does he believe are the alternatives to self-driving cars? How does Steve see the future for the unbundling of social networks? Will they be unbundled into specific communities? How will this look?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Steve’s Fave Book: Shogun: The First Novel of the Asian saga: A Novel of Japan
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Founders Friday on the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'd love to show you more |
| 0:04.1 | behind the scenes here. You can do that on Instagram at H. Stebbings, 1996 with two bees. But to our |
| 0:09.4 | episode today, and I've been excited about this one for a long time, maybe a couple of hints about the |
| 0:13.8 | guest. Today, this company ranks as the number five most visited website in the US. And I've also been lucky enough to have his wonderful co-founder, |
| 0:21.4 | Alexis O'Hanian, on the show previously. Maybe I gave it away with that one, but I'm very, |
| 0:25.7 | very excited to welcome Steve Huffman, co-found and CEO at Reddit, home to thousands of |
| 0:30.6 | communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection. To date, Reddit has raised over |
| 0:35.4 | $550 million in funding from some of the very |
| 0:38.3 | best in the world of venture, including Sequoia Capital, Mark Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Ron Comway, |
| 0:43.8 | Sam Altman, Josh Kushner, Alfred Lynn, and Tencent, just to name a few. Steve also started |
| 0:48.9 | his career at Y Combinator as one of their first alumni back in 2005. At YC, Steve co-founded Reddit with Alexis |
| 0:55.6 | O'Hanian, which they sold in 2006 to Condé Nas publications. In 2010, Steve then co-founded |
| 1:01.6 | hitmunk, making business travel seamless and easy. Then in 2015, Steve rejoined Reddit as their |
| 1:07.7 | CEO. I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Daniel Kahn, who made the |
| 1:11.3 | intro, and to Alexis O'Haney, and for some fantastic questions suggestions today. I really do so |
| 1:16.1 | appreciate that. I want to start today with a big shout out to my friends over at ActiveCampaign. |
| 1:20.6 | With their platform, you can create unique customer experiences that attract, nurture, |
| 1:24.9 | and convert leads into customers, into repeat customers. |
| 1:27.9 | Over 80,000 companies use Active Campaign to hit their sales targets with intelligent |
| 1:32.2 | automations that send the right message to the right person using the right method at the right time. |
| 1:37.2 | If you already have sales and marketing tools you love, keep them. |
| 1:40.2 | Active Campaign will work with them and give you automations to make them even better. |
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